DRAG RACE
NHRA PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 4 / JUNE 8-11, 2017
OLD BRIDGE TOWNSHIP RACEWAY PARK / ENGLISHTOWN, NEW JERSEY
P86
two rounds of the season on her
S&S-powered Buell.
"For me, the heat wasn't too
bad; I'm used to it because of
where I live," Savoie said. "For
Tim [Kulungian, crew chief] and
the rest of my guys it's a lot of
pressure because it's harder to
make good runs here. That's a
big part of why we added LE to
our team this year. We wanted a
second bike to get data from. It's
early but we're already working
well together. We feed off each
other and that's a good thing. I
might not win another race this
year because that boy is hungry.
He might come out here and win
the rest of them."
Arana Jr. was obviously
disgusted to lose the final but
Tonglet, the 2011 world cham-
pion. Tonglet exploded out of
the gate with two wins in the first
four races of the season includ-
ing a final round win against
Savoie at the most recent event
in Atlanta.
The Louisiana-based Savoie
has often said that he prefers to
race in warm and humid condi-
tions, and with a 93-degree high
temperature on Sunday, the
Summernationals was right up
his ally. Savoie was fourth-quick-
est in qualifying with a 6.828
and made his way through elimi-
nations with consistent runs of
6.854, 6.852, and 6.878 in his
wins against Team Liberty's Cory
Reed, Scotty Pollacheck, and
Angie Smith, who won her first
moving around again but I stayed
in it. I could hear Hector com-
ing but I wasn't about to lift. I
just tucked in and kept my head
down and waited for the finish
line. I've been struggling with my
reaction times a bit lately so to
win like this feels pretty good.
"You know, I'm 58 years old
and I still feel good and I feel
like I can do this but you never
know when it might be your last
win," Savoie said. "We do this
because we love it. I love it. My
crew loves it and my whole fam-
ily loves it. Days like today make
it all worthwhile."
Savoie won last year's title as
part of a single-bike team and
this year he expanded to two
bikes with the addition of LE
Savoie (far lane)
defeated Hector Arana
Jr. in the final.
